Red Bulls Blow Lead and Settle for Draw

Houston's Omar Cummings pounced on a rebound left by Luis Robles as the Dynamo rallied to tied the Red Bulls, 2-2, in an M.L.S. playoff game on Sunday.CreditCreditAssociated Press

By Jack Bell

Nov. 3, 2013

After a workout on Friday at the team’s training complex, Red Bulls Coach Mike Petke, with a smile, sidestepped the inevitable question: Would a tie at Houston in the first-game of a home-and-home playoff series suffice?

He said he was going for the win, but late in the game, depending on the situation, a draw would not be the worst thing in the world.

That might have been easy for him to say. The reality Sunday afternoon at BBVA Compass Stadium was different. The result, a 2-2 tie against the Houston Dynamo, was certainly not the worst thing in the world, but it was about as crushing as a tie away from home can be.

“The rule is on the road, you get a tie — you go home to your place pretty much 0-0 — it’s a good thing,” Petke said after the game. “But our guys are angry, the way we allowed them back in the game. At end of the day, their goals were our fault, they didn’t do anything spectacular. They were self-inflicted.”

After skating through the first 45 minutes and taking a 2-0 lead a halftime, the Red Bulls gave up an early goal after the interval, saw defender Jamison Olave harshly ejected for a hard tackle and then yielded a second goal in added time. The Red Bulls return home for Wednesday’s second game even in goals, but with a hole in the center of their defense.

The Red Bulls took a 1-0 lead 22 minutes in the game when Thierry Henry, unchallenged on the left side, let the ball roll past him, turned his body and lofted a soft left-footed cross into the Houston goal box. Tim Cahill slipped the mark of Corey Ashe, coiled and jumped for a header that he put past goalkeeper Talley Hall.

Ten minutes later, Dax McCarty’s pass from the back to Cahill launched a lightning counterattack. Cahill settled the ball and waited for Eric Alexander to move into position to his right. Alexander dribbled into the penalty area, cut the ball back on defender Eric Brunner, and while Hall leaned toward his far post, Alexander hit a left-footed shot with the back heel of his cleat to the near post to make it 2-0.

Houston cleaved the lead in half five minutes into the second half. A cross from the left by Brad Davis was allowed to bounce in front of Robles. Left back David Carney shanked his clearance, and it landed at the foot of Ricardo Clark. The former MetroStar draftee took a shot that was deflected to the near post by Olave as goalkeeper Luis Robles dived to his right

Petke made only one change to the lineup that defeated Chicago, 5-2, on Oct. 27 to clinch the league’s Supporters Shield. Alexander moved into the slot in right midfield instead of Lloyd Sam. Peguy Luyindula kept his spot in midfield, right behind Henry and Cahill up front. The tandem in central defense, Ibrahim Sekaya and Olave, made the space in front of Robles nearly impenetrable.

The outcome of the game — and perhaps the series — changed when Olave swooped in for a tackle on Omar Cummings, a second-half substitute by Houston’s tandem of interim coaches, Wade Barrett and Steve Ralston. (Dynamo Coach Dominic Kinnear was suspended by M.L.S. on Friday for leaving the bench area during a late-game melee in Thursday’s play-in game against Montreal.) Olave never got the ball but got plenty of Cummings, and the referee Ricardo Salazar ran over and yanked the red card out of his pocket. The Red Bulls were sentenced to playing the rest of the match with 10 men and face Wednesday’s return match at Red Bull Arena without the services of their best defender.

Petke was swift in adjusting to the altered circumstances, moving Markus Holgersson to the middle of the defense and replacing midfielder Jonny Steele with right back Brandon Barklage. He later brought fresh legs in Sam for Alexander and then Bradley Wright-Phillips for Luyindula.

The Red Bulls saw little of the ball in the final 25 minutes and limped into second-half added time clinging to a one-goal lead. That was erased when Brad Davis lofted a corner kick from the left that was headed down to the near post by Bobby Boswell. Robles could only push the ball out, but right to Cummings, who had stepped in front of defender David Carney and jammed the ball inside the near post. It was the second critical mistake by Carney, the veteran defender from Australia.

The Red Bulls’ disciplinary situation, in addition to Olave’s one-game suspension, should be a concern to Petke. Four Red Bulls — Carney, Henry, Barklage and Cahill — took yellow cards in Game 1. Though all disciplinary records were wiped clean at the end of the regular season, two yellows in the playoffs brings a one-game suspension.

“In the end they were buzzing,” Cahill said. “For us, we’re disappointed, but there’s one more game to go. This is playoff football. We’re ready for it. There’s nothing to fear. We have a home game, we feel comfortable. There were just a few errors and you draw 2-2. But i don’t think we were fazed at all that whole game. We made just a few mistakes and it happens.”